Singaara Chennai

Somehow, human nature seems to have an affinity, in fact an extreme fascination for filth. Please wait, do not spite me now for this statement… read further. Unfortunately for the human kind, yours truly is learning, rather re-learning to drive in the roads of Chennai. This is an extreme arduous and dangerous task considering how insane the traffic is. But this post is not about this experience. Unfortunately, the driving school shifted to a place called ‘Kanthanchavadi’ from near my home and so I undertake a journey in an MTC bus every afternoon to this place. This road, from the Velachery bus stand to SRP is so horrible, fully treated as a garbage dump wherever convenient, with stagnant water right next to the bus stops too.

They say pictures speak a thousand words and so I am pasting a 1000 words for you down here to illustrate the scene that I see that makes me sad everyday! These were taken on my phone camera when the bus was moving.

They call this ‘Singara Chennai’ (translation-beautiful Chennai). The way from Poonamallee to Porur has huge garbage dumps that win over these pictures hands down.

It is with extreme anguish that I post this. I am seeing thousands of people pass by the same road every day, with nothing called civic sense, a sense of hygiene, ready to live in this filth and perpetuating it every minute. Children play in this, food stalls are near these garbage dumps and a bus stand is non-existent. Buses ply on the bad road (which is under repair) raising a cart load of dust which settles on everybody around. I get the taste of fine sand/mud on my mouth every time I come back home. Let me also state that this road is very near to the Perungudi bypass road where IT majors like Cognizant , RMZ millennia park exist. In this city, they introduce A/C buses and build express avenues when a major part of the city lives in garbage like this! People have made homes of the roads in the city as you can see.

I am only exposing the problem here. As an individual and a city citizen, I really do not know what to do. I do not want to get in to anything political. Is there something that we can do to help ?